Summative Evaluation

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? I have learnt how to use drawing as a tool for understanding a topic and forming an opinion on it. The drawing as thinking sketchbook task made me see drawing in a different way, less about its appearance and more about the concept behind it and different thoughts that come into your head as you are exploring a topic. At first I didn't understand how this was going to help at all but I think this sketchbook was really important for me to clarify to myself my own opinions and how I was going to progress with the information I had. I had never heard of a Pecha Kucha presentation before, let alone prepared one. I felt that my script was concise in getting across what I was trying to say which was a bit difficult as I am not used to writing in such short sections. It was a challenge for me to be clear in what I was trying to say but still only spend around twenty seconds speaking about each slide.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?
Most of my research for the draft of my essay was from books, articles and webpages which wasn't a very broad range of information. I struggled with the idea of writing a ‘university standard’ essay because I didn't really know how this was meant to be, the same went for references because I wasn't sure whether the information I was looking at was academic enough to be referenced. When I made improvements to my essay, I used some quotes from the big heads sessions which made me more interested in my research because it was more than just reading from a page. During my further research for my visual diagram, I spent more time reading articles online and a few newspaper articles which were slightly less formal than what I had been reading before. Some of these included personal experiences of the isolation and loneliness involved with freelancing which gave me a much more human viewpoint of the topic, I think this influenced the way I decided to tackle this topic in my visual diagram. After reading these more personal accounts, I realised that the topic needed to be handled respectfully but with a bit of a twist so that the atmosphere wasn't totally downbeat, this is how I came up with the more humorous approach to getting across the information.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think I managed to get across my opinion in my work and used my references mainly to support this. My opinion was that freelancers need to do their best to avoid isolation in their situation which I am sure became clear in the visual response part of this module. When it came to writing my essay, I managed my time a lot better when writing up the final thing after the draft had been submitted. In preparation for the draft, I was guilty of leaving the written tasks to the last minute because they are the ones I enjoy the least but I didn’t want the stress of a last minute essay for this entire module. After receiving feedback on my draft, I set aside some time in the Easter break to improve my essay, continue with my research and develop my Pecha Kucha presentation which meant that I had more time to develop my visual diagram after the break was over. Next year I will stay on top of written tasks throughout the whole year to avoid unnecessary stress.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I attended all of the lectures and took notes from them but I don’t feel like they were relevant to the context of practice module. I’m not sure if I needed to make them relevant through further research or incorporating them into my essay but I feel like I attended the lectures, typed up the notes and then just forgot about them when I may have been able to use the information more constructively. I am not entirely happy with my final visual diagram, especially now it is printed I keep noticing things that I could have spent a bit more time on. I am still not sure whether it actually functions as a diagram because I don’t think the information has been arranged with enough thought going into it. I understand that the main point of the diagram was the concept behind it and the research gone in to it but I can’t help but pick apart its overall appearance now that it is complete. A big weakness of mine from this module was staying motivated. I think this was due to the topic of my essay being carried through from the very beginning to the very end of the year. The research aspect became less and less interesting. Especially after the essay was finished and I felt like I has exhausted the topic, I found it hard to stay motivated to research further into the same topic for the visual diagram. 5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years Context of Practice module? Getting my research from a wider range of sources. This will help me to broaden the pool of information I am basing an essay on, it may also help me come across more controversial and opposing opinions if start to look deeper for more interesting sources. Choosing a topic irrelevant to illustration. When it came to the second part of this module where it became more image based, I found myself going in circles doing illustrations about illustration and felt like I couldn't expand out of this. I think next year I will choose a topic that will be more interesting to illustrate and improve my knowledge about something totally different. Referencing as I go for all information. I was quite good at doing this but there were a few pieces of information I found online that I hasn't taken note of a web address for and therefore had to struggle to locate it again. I’ve realised it just takes up unnecessary amounts of time and it would be quicker to reference everything as I go, even if I’m not sure if I will be using that information yet because it would be ready to add into my essay if I do need it. Keep my notes organised. Keeping everything for this module in one folder would be useful because it saves having to look amongst all my work from this course for pieces of paper or drawings from weeks ago that I misplaced. Become passionate about my chosen topic. Although my topic this year is relevant to me as an illustration student, I don’t think I got particularly ‘involved’ with the subject. I am hoping that next year, I will choose a topic that I will become passionate about and enjoy researching it in a lot of depth.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					X
Punctuality					X
Motivation		X
Commitment			X
Quantity of work produced			X
Quality of work produced			X
Contribution to the group			X